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Delving into the inner workings of this season's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel |
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The Pitching Process - Jane Espenson The pitching process is a great way for young writers to sell their ideas, the unfortunate thing is that ‘Star Trek’ is the only show that holds open pitches. Other than that, you need to have an agent or be well established in the industry. "The one time you ‘pitch’ at Buffy is when you have a job interview there. Joss has read a spec and likes it enough he wants you
Want to be a writer for TV? "You want to pitch with great verve. Really make them understand you have enthusiasm for a story, particularly as a new writer. They like to hear that you’ve crystallized the theme enough that you were able to pull out a title. The two main ingredients of a pitch is you have the theme, the ‘what is this really about in the real world,’ the metaphor and you have the character arc, which on Buffy is almost always the Buffy arc. An arc is a change the character undergoes during the course of an episode. Also a story arc: events that happen over the course of an episode. So you want to make sure those two things are really clear in your pitch." Jane did a few demonstrations as to what you would say when pitching your episode idea. Here she chose one that she actually pitched to Joss when she first came aboard Buffy and which also turned into the episode... Band Candy: "You think it would be really fun to see what your parents were like as teenagers. Buffy is feeling constrained by the parent figures in her life, Giles and Joyce. There’s something in the coffee that changes all the adults to teenagers and as a teenage, Giles was a Demon raiser. So they go off and raise a demon. Buffy now has to fight the demon without the support and in fact, suffering the interference of these two teenagers when she would really like to have parent figures there." Now she begins to analyze her own pitch to see if it has all the nessesary elements to make a good story. "It has, ‘what’s Buffy going through’, that she goes from resenting the parental authority to missing the parental authority. The metaphor: immaturity, seeing your parents drunk, out of control. And Joss saw that it had potential for funny. Joyce and Giles sort of become a couple. They’re kind of like on a date but nothing really happens and Joss was like immediately ‘Oh no, they’re gonna have sex.’ ‘Oh, okay!’" Ear Shot: Not always is story laid out with such clear thought, "A lot of times we’ll be working on a story before we realize the main idea." As in this episode, "Things started out backwards. Someone gets psychic powers, probably Xander to cheat on an exam. David (Greenwwalt) said this was interesting, but instead of while cheating on a test and hearing the teacher with the answers, you hear, ‘this time tomorrow you’ll all be dead’ Okay, now we’ve got a who-done-it. Yeah, it probably is Xander, we have a murder mystery, but let’s make it about Buffy, it’s always better when it’s about Buffy. Okay, Psychic Buffy. Now there’s a murder for Buffy to investigate." But what’s the metaphor? "We’re all over who-done-it, until, hearing everyone’s thoughts in High School - everyone’s pain is unique" We’re so wraped up in our own pain that we don’t see that everyone else is going through the same thing. "The last layer - what’s Angel thinking, what Buffy wants to know most, because the Faith thing just happened. So sometimes we really do things all bass-ackwards." The Initiative: "Joss pitched the idea of Buffy coming across people doing the same job as she but in a completely different way. Her modernless crossbow, pointy sticks, would shake up Buffy’s notion of the way she does her job. How would the Military deal with demons?" It was interesting to see that they were more willing to except the existance of demons and vampires then they were the notion of a Slayer. The oddity that human nature will accept anything. One of Jane’s favorite lines from this episode, which she wishes she had written was, Prof. Walsh: "So you’re the Slayer? We thought you were a myth." Buffy: "I guess you were mythtaken." "If any of you are interested in writing specs for a show and pitching for a show, really start watching television analytically. And after an episode ask ‘what was I feeling emotionally’ and really try and articulate the theme of it and at it’s most emotional level. If you get
Our platinum baby... a brunette? Jane explains who the pitch comes from on Buffy. "Generally it’s pitched in a room with everyone, but most everything you see comes from Joss. He would never say ‘Oh the fans want this so let’s do it.’ In fact, Joss would tend to go the other way. If everyone starts anticipating on the board, ‘that’s what’s going to happen’ and predicting what’s going to happen, that’s the thing to most likely make it not happen. Because Joss will say, ‘Well I won’t be giving them a surprise’ and Joss wants to surprise, delight and educate. And he really does want to frustrate you because that’s part of what makes a fan. You have to be engaged with the show on as many emotional levels as possible as you can, including frustration. And he really likes to have the fans go through what the characters are going through. Pain is a beautiful thing on our show."
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